We use cookies in order to provide you with the best possible user experience on our websites. By continuing to use our sites and services, you are giving consent to cookies being used. You can find more information in our data privacy statement.

Good for the Customer Is Good for Business

As brands fight for the attention of the
always-on consumer, organizations are making big bets to optimize their customer
experiences. Customer experience leaders
are doubling down in three areas: relevancy, personalization, and making it easy.
Across industries, we see
over and over that customers are looking for brands to create service
experiences that answer their questions quickly and solve their problems with a
minimum of fuss.

To help our clients design easier experiences, our
Analytics team took a look at customer channel usage and preference. We
conducted an online study among more than 3,000 U.S. consumers who had at least
two service interactions in the last 90 days. We found that when it comes to a
customer’s quest for resolution, the path taken has evolved significantly over
the years. Yet one constant remains: The 800# often is the first stop in the
journey. In fact, 47% said they would pick up the phone first. Virtually every one of those callers then
hits the IVR before they connect to a person.

Although not as glamorous as a
mobile-app engagement or video-enabled chat, a company’s IVR often handles
millions of callers in a single month, or even a single week.

Some
organizations are aware that the phone isn’t going away and are making major IT
investments to introduce visual IVRs. This breakthrough technology hits the experience
trifecta; it’s relevant, personalized and effortless.

But you don’t need to make a multi-million dollar
investment to hit the mark. All you have to do is refocus on the IVR through
the lens of the customer.

For example, one healthcare insurer conducted regular IT-driven
IVR reviews but lacked the customer perspective. To fix this, the company began
its customer-centric assessment at the call center by conducting focus groups
and holding onsite interviews with agents and managers. They identified failure
points and improvement opportunities through front-line call driver
intelligence and listened to hundreds of calls to find out why customers
contact customer support, and why they don’t resolve issues inside the IVR. The
findings led to a channel optimization project that gleaned $3M in call
containment and 56% increase in self-service usage.

Optimizing the IVR through the lens of the customer is
good for the customer and good for business. For more information, download our white paper.

John
Georgesen, Ph.D. is the Senior Director of Research Analytics and Decision
Sciences at Convergys Analytics. He has practice responsibility for delivering
research insights to clients through a team of analysts and statisticians. John
specializes in crafting and deploying measurement programs that not only answer
business questions but provide actionable recommendations for implementation.
With more than 15 years of experience spanning the intersection of marketing
research and data science, John is a recognized thought leader who is an active
writer and speaker in the customer experience field.